Primul Război Mondial în memoriile unor voluntari
Helping the Wounded. Testimonies from WWI

Summary/Abstract: The women who volunteered and wrote about their initiatives during the first world war were mostly members of Romania’s social and intellectual elite, such as Regina Maria, Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, Neli Cornea, Alexandrina Fălcoianu, Alexandrina Gr. Cantacuzino, Zoe Râmniceanu, Letiția Ghidionescu. Through work and dedication, they managed to transform schools into hospitals, to run them, to attract volunteers, doctors, and nurses, to collect money for the functioning of these medical institutions. The National Orthodox Society of Romanian Women was a feminist association that managed to open hospitals for wounded soldiers throughout the country – for example, Hospital 113 in Bucharest –, to provide daily meals for orphaned children, as well as aid to war prisoners.Numerous female volunteers managed to collaborate, work, and help the wounded in hospitals, to feed and educate the orphaned children or the children of soldiers mobilized, both in Bucharest and in many other localities in the country. One should mention the contribution of nuns (including Swiss nouns), priests, and scouts in Hospital 113.Godefroy Simionescu’s scout notebook can be considered a relevant archival document, because it offers a history of Bucharest in September-October 1916 and an image of the activities of the scouts, especially the volunteer ones to the hospitals. Therefore, it is a historical source about the daily life of the inhabitants of Bucharest while Romania was entering the World War I, the health service, various political figures, doctors, scouts, and active women.

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